Atlanta Falcons reach extension with Canadian OL Austin Pasztor

Canadian offensive lineman Austin Pasztor has reached a one-year contract extension agreement with the Atlanta Falcons.

After starting in all 16 games for the Cleveland Browns in 2016, Pasztor signed with Atlanta during training camp last season. He played in seven games as a backup tackle.

Pasztor, who stands six-foot-seven and 308 pounds, was drafted in the first round, fourth overall by the Edmonton Eskimos in 2012, but he’s spent his entire career in the NFL after going undrafted the same year.

He was in Minnesota Vikings training camp in 2012. Jacksonville picked him up in September of that year and he played three seasons with the Jaguars. Cleveland claimed Pasztor off waivers in September 2015 where he played two seasons.

The 27-year-old Langton, Ontario native has accrued 43 starts over 65 games throughout the course of his six-year career in the NFL.

JC and Solara, your theory is flawed. There is so much good talent from Canada nowadays that some players have gone to the NFL. So we need to… LOWER the ratio in the CFL?
I don’t get that.
I think this shows that theres enough talent that the ratio could actually rise. Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Saskatchewan, Hamilton and even Winnipeg can (and have) dress more than seven Canadian starters. Its just B.C. and Montreal that are a bit thin with Canadian talent.
It would be stupid to make a knee jerk move like lowering the CFL ratio simply because 15-20 Canadians have managed to get signed south of the border.

I would simply say if your argument is the Canadian talent is good enough….then why the need for a quota? Would those teams dress those starters if they had a choice?
I simply want to see the best football players available to my team….period. I bet fans of all the teams feel this way to some degree? I feel there is a noticeable drop off in the level of play when there are forced quotas…..for the CFL to truly grow/survive and be considered a truly professional football league and attract those kind of eyeballs and dollars….this is going to have to be looked at soon. If there were a way to force the best Canadians to play in the CFL the cancon would make more sense to me. But that is not go to happen.

If I agreed with you, then we’d both be wrong . The Canadian Football League has survived for longer than most of us have lived . Those of us who buy tickets(season tickets for 50 years)want to see the local kid grow to be a star in the league . Russ Jackson went to Westdale High and McMaster in Hamilton . So did I ! If he was some guy from the University of Roast Beef, then I’d be watching American style football and eventually American rules . I’m Canadian. I want our game to feature Canadian kids! I’d be in favour of increasing the number of Canadians on each roster.